


Action stations!

by Hypatia_66



Series: An UNCLE Gazetteer [19]
Category: The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (TV)
Genre: ABC Challenge, Cold War, Community: section7mfu, Gen, Original Character(s), Pre-Canon, Submarines
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-23
Updated: 2018-06-23
Packaged: 2019-05-27 09:55:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15022097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hypatia_66/pseuds/Hypatia_66
Summary: LJ ABC Affair II. Cities A-Z. Prompt SA strange object drops out of the sky into the sea and lands on a Russian sub.  Illya has to obey orders.





	Action stations!

**14 April 1959 Off Spitsbergen**

“Action stations! Action stations!”

The bump had been loud and resounded on the submarine’s hull. Then nothing. Everyone held their breath… and after a few moments relaxed a little.

“All right. Stand down. Could have been a whale,” said the captain, at last.

His lieutenant spoke diffidently, “Whales don’t clang, sir.”

The captain grimaced and said quietly, “No, you’re right, Comrade Lieutenant, they don’t.”

“Can you see the forward hull, sir, or shall I give orders to surface and look for damage?”

The captain manoeuvred the periscope to look along the hull saying, “We’re too close to Spitsbergen – we’ll have to move out into international waters and surface then… Bozhe moi!”

“Sir?” The lieutenant restrained his impulse to snatch the periscope but almost danced with impatience.

“Here, Kuryakin, what do _you_ see?”

The young man grasped the periscope and stared, then he looked at the captain. “It’s some kind of capsule, like a huge cigar. Can we retrieve it and bring it inboard?”

The captain smiled. “You mean can you retrieve it? You can go and look. Check it isn’t going to blow us up and if it is, push it off.”

Lieutenant Kuryakin scurried off to insert his skinny body into a cold-water wetsuit and oxygen tanks and reappeared within a very short space of time – as always, ready for anything, any time. Or was it that he just liked getting out of the sub?

The captain watched as he swam along the hull. He stopped at the capsule and, without touching it, trod water while he examined it. Then he waved an arm at the periscope and picked it up.

He climbed down out of the airlock clutching in his arms the silver object, which was much heavier out of water than in it, and now seen to trail a sodden parachute. He was excited. “It’s a satellite, sir. An American spy satellite – see, there’s a hole for a camera.” He turned it to reveal a US flag painted on the side and the words “Discoverer 2. Secret’.

“You’d think they’d want to _keep_ it secret, not tell us who or what,” commented the captain wrily. Kuryakin smiled. He was beginning to know the ways of Americans after working on and off with them for several years now. So clever but often so innocently brash.

“See if you can open it. Come and report to me when you have.”

“Aye aye, sir.”

oo000oo

“There’s almost nothing inside sir – nothing that works anyway. It looks like a prototype spy satellite, designed to carry several cameras.”

The captain looked grim. He spoke seriously now, “Comrade Lieutenant, I don’t have to remind you that you are under orders, or that your sworn duty is to protect your country.”

“Sir?” said the lieutenant.

“This is an official secret. It must remain one whatever your other role asks of you. If the USA is sending up satellites to spy on our beloved country, a careful surveillance of their activities will need to be maintained.” He eyed the young man thoughtfully. The blue eyes met his. “I order you _not_ to disclose this find to the agency you work for in the USA.”

“Sir… wouldn’t it be better for the Americans to know that we know about this?”

“It may well be so, but I cannot take responsibility for allowing it. You must not speak to them about it. Do I have your word?”

There was a pause. The lieutenant took a breath. “… Yes, sir. Aye aye, sir.”

“When are you due back there?” the captain asked, though he knew very well.

“Six weeks and a day, sir.” His eyes dared the captain to challenge it.

“Well, I may receive different orders about releasing the information when we’re back in port but I doubt it.”

oo000oo

He ran into Napoleon Solo in the canteen.

“Illya!  Good to see you. When did you get back?” said Napoleon.

“I arrived last night,” he replied.

“Been busy?”

“Always,” said Illya.

“Find anything under the icecap by way of a souvenir? Polar bear’s eggs or something?”

“They don’t lay eggs,” he said. “What makes you think I was under the icecap?”

“No-one could look as white as you do unless they’ve been in a sub for months – and I guess that means lurking under the icecap.”

Illya said nothing.

“I guess you must go around Svalbard,” Napoleon continued. “Or do you go through the islands as part of the fun?” It seemed to be a jokey remark. He laughed as he said it. Illya flushed.

“You can’t expect me to tell you things like that, Napoleon. I’m a serving officer.”

Napoleon felt the chill of the Cold War, never far away. “I guess you are. Sorry... It’s just … No, forget it.”

Their eyes met and dropped.

ooo0000ooo

**Author's Note:**

> The Corona satellite program, originally called Discoverer, began in 1956. Discoverer 2 was the first satellite to be launched into polar orbit and carried a recovery capsule, designed to enable it to be captured on re-entry by a plane. That failed and it came down near Svalbard (Spitsbergen) in April 1959 and was never found. It was thought the Soviets might have recovered it but, even if they had, the payload would have been negligible at this stage of development.


End file.
